Nissan is celebrating a sales record, as the three-millionth Qashqai model exits Sunderland

After posting its best year of European sales, the Sunderland plant has reported a 3.8% sales increase on 2016. Qashqai sales have also gone up 1.2%, which shows the market is still expanding.

The Qashqai crossover is the ‘most successful’ car in Nissan’s history, winning 19 ‘Car of the Year’ titles, across its ten-year life span.

Paul Willcox, chairman of Nissan Europe, said: “2017 was another record-breaking year for Nissan Europe, and 2018 has started the same way. The Qashqai’s achievement of reaching 3,000,000 vehicles produced in 10 years is a significant milestone, while the October launch of the new and eagerly awaited Nissan LEAF has seen record-breaking pre-orders of one every 10 minutes.”

The third-generation Qashqai was also announced for Sunderland in 2016, as well as the X-Trail model, which will begin production later this year.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, Nissan divisional vice president for European manufacturing, said: “Nissan’s Sunderland factory in the U.K. has celebrated many remarkable achievements, but in the plant’s 30-year history, there hasn’t been another car like the Qashqai.

“The Qashqai was the original urban crossover, and in the decade since we started production, the skill and expertise of our workforce here in Sunderland, combined with the enhanced design and interior quality improvements, have maintained the Qashqai’s leadership of the segment